Gurugram: Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Singh Chautala’s attempt to browbeat ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Haryana ahead of the Lok Sabha election by fielding candidates in the Rajasthan assembly election came a cropper as his Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) lost deposits in all the 19 seats that it contested.
Its 0.14 percent vote share was less than NOTA’s 0.96 percent.
Chautala is eager to get one or two seats from its ally in Haryana, where the BJP had swept all seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The BJP has shown no inclination to part with any seat, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah exhorting party workers to win all 10 constituencies.
The JJP contested the Rajasthan assembly polls with the claims that the party would emerge as a kingmaker in Haryana with the “key (also the election symbol of the JJP) to the Vidhan Sabha in its hand”.
With the parliamentary elections less than six months away and the assembly polls in Haryana also due in October next year, political analysts and Opposition parties were watching with interest how Dushyant Chautala’s performance in Rajasthan would impact his equations with the BJP.
While political analysts say the Rajasthan verdict will definitely impact the JJP in Haryana, Chautala himself has expressed confidence about the party’s prospects next year.
Among other political parties, the BJP polled 41.69 percent of the votes in Rajasthan, while the Congress got 39.53 percent, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 0.38 percent.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) got 0.01 percent, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) 1.82 percent, Communist Party of India (CPI) 0.04 percent, CPI-(Marxist) 0.96 percent, CPI-(Marxist-Leninist) Liberation 0.01 percent, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) 0.01 percent, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party 2.39 percent, Shiv Sena 0.15 percent, Samajwadi Party 0.01 percent, and others 11.90 percent.
Asked about the party’s poor vote share, Chautala said that, compared to the other smaller players in the field, the JJP’s performance was not bad, as three of the party’s candidates had been able to poll more than 5,000 votes.
Chautala also said there was no question of the results affecting the party’s ties with the BJP in Haryana, because “firstly, my party contested largely those seats where the Congress was powerful, and secondly, as a political party, the JJP has the aspirations to broaden its base”.
“We have a very robust party organisation in Haryana and we won 10 seats in the state assembly polls in our maiden election in 2019,” he added. “This time our party is much better prepared,” said Chautala.
Contacted for the BJP’s perspective, Sanjay Sharma, state spokesperson of the party, said they were not in any poll alliance with the JJP so far.
“We contested the 2019 assembly polls separately. Since the BJP couldn’t get the 46 seats needed to form a government (the BJP got 40 seats), we went into a post-poll alliance with the JJP to run a government for five years,” he added. “The JJP’s adventure in Rajasthan hasn’t hurt the BJP in any manner as the election results suggest. The party has won 115 seats out of 199 constituencies that went to polls. Once the elections come, the party’s central leadership will take a call on the alliance,” said Sharma.
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‘Will dampen JJP prospects’
According to Hemant Atri, a political analyst on Haryana politics, the JJP’s poor performance in Rajasthan is bound to reflect on the party’s prospects in the coming parliamentary and assembly polls.
“Before the announcement of elections for the five states, Dushyant Chautala announced his party’s plans to contest elections on 25 to 30 seats in Rajasthan in the hope that the BJP will accommodate his party and give a few seats,” said Atri.
“However, the BJP didn’t consider the JJP worthy of an alliance in that state. Now, Chautala’s party stands exposed with its dismal performance. This is bound to dampen the JJP’s prospects in Haryana in the next year’s elections,” he added.
Although BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, have clarified on several occasions that their party’s alliance with the JJP is for running the government for five years, it will have to be seen how the two parties work together after the Rajasthan results, he added.
Abhay Singh Chautala, Dushyant Chautala’s estranged uncle and the secretary general of the Opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), said the JJP stood exposed “with its very poor performance”.
What has happened to the JJP in Rajasthan, he added, will be repeated in Haryana in the parliamentary and assembly elections next year, as the people “are now disillusioned” with the JJP leader.
Dushyant Chautala, however, said he was not at all upset with his party’s performance in the Rajasthan assembly elections.
Reached for comment, Chautala said this was the first election by the JJP, formed in 2018, outside Haryana.
“We didn’t have an organisation in Rajasthan. But ever since we appointed Prithviraj Meel as the president of our party’s Rajasthan unit in May this year, several political leaders have joined the party and we have been able to create our organisation in that state,” said Chautala.
“Now, when we contest our next elections in Rajasthan, we will have the advantage of our party’s units across the state. Not just the assembly polls, we will also contest elections for the panchayati raj institutions and municipal bodies,” he added.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
Also Read: How BJP’s Haryana ally, Dushyant Chautala’s JJP, is compounding its problems in Rajasthan